Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, to apparatus and methods of requesting and providing access to information associated with an image.
Various applications may benefit from having a machine or processor that is capable of identifying objects in a visual representation (e.g., an image or picture). The field of computer vision attempts to provide techniques and/or algorithms that permit identifying objects or features in an image by a computer. These techniques and/or algorithms are often also applied to face recognition, object detection, image matching, panorama stitching, three-dimensional structure construction, stereo correspondence, and/or motion tracking, among other applications.
The use of computer vision to discern faces and other objects by matching faces and objects within an image to a data source in order to identify the face or object, has brought with it security, privacy, publicity, and ethical concerns. For example, public objects, such as street signs, are in public view with the intent that such imagery may be recognized by individuals. Similarly, recognition of public objects by computer vision may not be cause for concern. In contrast, however, recognition by computer vision of some objects or faces within an image may not be desirable for a variety of reasons. In one example, a parent may wish to prevent recognition by computer vision of an image that includes her child's face. In another example, an individual may wish to prevent recognition of his house or car (as belonging to him) by computer vision such that strangers cannot find out where he lives or where he travels. In another example, people may wish to restrict information about themselves that may be determined and shared as a result of their face being recognized within an image by computer vision. Such concerns may extend to a desire to not just control recognition of such images, but also control transmission of such images over a wireless communications system.
One solution would be to seek explicit permission from an individual before using computer vision to recognize his or her face within an image, transmit an image of him or her over a wireless communications system, or provide information related to him or her (or the image in which his or her face appears) to another individual who is in possession of the image. However, asking permission of the subject of an image to recognize or transmit such an image may be undesirable, ranging from inconvenient to impossible. Furthermore, and paradoxically, it may not be known whose permission should be sought (e.g., the identity of an individual whose face is in an image) for recognition and/or transmission of an image until the individual is recognized by computer vision (and/or transmitted to a computer vision server within a wireless communications system), which would be counter-productive and unacceptable.
As such, improvements in determining whether a subject of an image may be interested in being recognized by computer vision, having the image transmitted within a wireless communications system, and/or providing information about the subject to a device associated with the image, may be desired.